The effects of listener and speaker training on emergent relations in children with autism

The current study assessed the use of standard conditional discrimination (i.e., listener) and textual/tact (i.e., speaker) training in the establishment of equivalence classes containing dictated names, tacts/textual responses, pictures and printed words. Four children (ages 5 to 7 years) diagnosed with autism were taught to select pictures and printed words in the presence of their dictated names, and to emit the tact or textual response corresponding to a presented picture or printed word. Both speaker and listener training resulted in the formation of stimulus classes for 3 of 4 participants.     

Rudimentary Reading Repertoires via Stimulus Equivalence and Recombination of Minimal Verbal Units

We report a study with sixteen low-SES Brazilian children that sought to establish a repertoire of relations involving dictated words, printed words, and corresponding pictures. Children were taught: (1) in response to dictated words, to select corresponding pictures; (2) in response to syllables presented in both visual and auditory formats, to select words which contained a corresponding syllable in either the first or the last position; (3) in response to dictated-word samples, to “construct” corresponding printed words via arranging their constituent syllabic components; and (4) in response to printed word samples, to construct identical printed words by arranging their syllabic constituents. After training on the first two types of tasks, children were given tests for potentially emergent relations involving printed words and pictures. Almost all exhibited relations consistent with stimulus equivalence. They also displayed emergent naming performances––not only with training words but also with new words that were recombinations of their constituent syllables. The present work was inspired by Sidman''s stimulus equivalence paradigm and by Skinner''s functional analysis of verbal relations, particularly as applied to conceptions of minimal behavioral units and creativity (i.e., behavioral flexibility) in the analytical units applied to verbal relations.     

Teaching Manual Signs to Adults With Mental Retardation Using Matching-to-Sample Procedures and Stimulus Equivalence

The objective of this study was to teach manual signs through an automated matching-to-sample procedure and to test for the emergence of new conditional relations and imitative behaviors. Seven adults with mild to severe mental retardation participated. Four were also hearing impaired. Relations between manual signs (set A) and pictures (set B) were initially taught, followed by the training of corresponding printed words (set C) and pictures (set B). Further presentations of conditional discriminations tested for the emergence of AC, followed by tests for the emergence of imitative signing behavior (D) in the presence of either pictures (B) or printed words (C). Each stimulus set was comprised of 9 elements. The stimuli were still pictures, printed words, and dynamic presentations of manual signs. A pretest was conducted to determine which signs the participants could make pre-experimentally. Teaching was arranged in a multiple baseline design across 3 groups of 3 words each. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether participants would emit manual signs in expressive signs tests as a result of observation (video modeling) during match-to-sample training in the absence of explicit training. Five of the 7 subjects passed tests of emergence and emitted at least 50% of the signs. Two were hearing impaired with signing experience, and 3 were not hearing impaired and had no signing experience. Thus, observation of video recorded manual signs in a matching-to-sample training procedure was effective at establishing some signs by adults with mental retardation.     

Expanding Vocal Requesting Repertoires via Relational Responding in Adults with Severe Developmental Disabilities

The purpose of this project was to demonstrate untrained vocal requests in three adults with severe developmental disabilities. Specifically, we evaluated whether a history of reinforced relational responding would give rise to untrained vocal requests for novel items. Participants were first taught to request preferred items using their category names. They were then taught conditional discriminations between pictures of preferred items that were categorically related. Finally, participants were tested for their abilities to request items that had not been originally presented during request training, using their category names. All participants demonstrated untrained requests, and for some participants, changes in the mand repertoire were accompanied by changes in the tact repertoire. Some participants also showed generalization of skills across settings.     

Equivalence class formation in non-hearing impaired children and hearing impaired children

The relationship between verbal behavior and stimulus equivalence was examined using three sets of children differing in chronological age and verbal ability: (1) non-hearing impaired three and four year olds who had verbal skills generally consistent with their chronological ages; (2) partially hearing (severe to profoundly deaf) children who were rated with verbal ages of above 2 years; and (3) partially hearing children (also severely to profoundly deaf) who were rated with verbal ages of below 2 years. All children were taught a series of four conditional discriminations using unfamiliar stimuli. The children were then tested to determine whether classes of equivalent stimuli had formed. Although all the children were able to learn the conditional discriminations equally well and all the verbally-able children (normal and partially hearing) formed equivalence classes, only one of the verbally-impaired children reliably demonstrated stimulus equivalence formation. These results are consistent with the suggestion that stimulus equivalence and human verbal behavior are closely related.

     

The Emergence of Autoclitic Frames in Atypically and Typically Developing Children as a Function of Multiple Exemplar Instruction

In two experiments, we tested the effect of multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) for training sets on the emergence of autoclitic frames for spatial relations for novel tacts and mands. In Experiment 1, we used a replicated pre- and post-intervention probe design with four students with significant learning disabilities to test for acquisition of four autoclitic frames with novel tacts and mands before and after MEI. The untaught topographies emerged for all participants. In Experiment 2, we used a multiple probe design to test the effects of the MEI procedures on the same responses in four typically developing, bilingual students. The novel usage emerged for all participants. In the latter experiment, the children demonstrated untaught usage of mand or tact frames regardless of whether they were taught to respond in either listener or speaker functions alone or across listener and speaker functions. The findings are discussed in terms of the role of MEI in the formation of abstractions.     

Assessing Transfer of Stimulus Control Procedures Across Learners With Autism

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of 2 transfer of stimulus control procedures to teach tacting to individuals with autism. Five participants with differing verbal skills were assessed by a subset of the ABLLS prior to intervention, then were taught 36 previously unknown tacts using the receptive-echoic-tact (r-e-t) and echoic-tact (e-t) transfer procedures. Each transfer method was used separately to establish different tacts, in a multiple baseline design across tacts for 3 sets of stimuli. The results showed that 4 out of 5 participants (who demonstrated mands, tacts, echoics, and sometimes intraverbals prior to the study) acquired all targeted tacts when either r-e-t or e-t training was presented. One participant (who emitted no verbal operants at the onset of the study) did not acquire any tacts. While some participants appeared to learn more quickly with one transfer method, neither method emerged as more efficient with learners with fewer or more extensive verbal skills. The results indicate that both transfer methods promoted the acquisition of tacts for learners with autism with at least minimal verbal skills.     

An Evaluation of Two Tact-Training Procedures on Acquired Tacts and Tacting During Play

A common practice in tact training is to include a supplemental verbal stimulus (e.g., “What is it?”) in addition to the presentation of a nonverbal discriminative stimulus. Previous literature has suggested that this supplemental verbal stimulus can impede acquisition and generalization relative to the presentation of the object alone, as it may establish faulty stimulus control or decrease spontaneous tacting. Research has yet to compare these 2 training methods on the generalization of learned tacts to more naturalistic, play-based environments. The present study evaluated the use of “What is it?” compared to the presentation of only the nonverbal discriminative stimulus on tact acquisition among 3 children with autism spectrum disorder and the extent to which these training procedures led to tacting in a play-based setting following discrete-trial training. Overall, participants learned to tact stimuli under both conditions, and all participants demonstrated generalization of tacts in a play-based setting. Recommendations for the development and evaluation of naturalistic posttraining assessment are discussed.     

The Effect of Parental Gender Roles on Students' Attitudes Toward Lesbian,Gay, and Heterosexual Adoptive Couples

All of Canada's provinces and territories legally recognize the right of gay and lesbian couples to adopt children; however, widespread acceptance of this practice has not been documented. Using an experimental design, with 506 university students, the present study assessed (1) attitudes toward gay, lesbian, and heterosexual adoptive couples; (2) the sex of the child to be adopted; (3) gender role characteristics of the adoptive couple; and (4) predictors of attitudes toward adoption by same-sex couples. Using vignettes describing potential adoptive couples, the results revealed that gay and lesbian couples were rated significantly less favorably than heterosexual couples when asked about outcomes for the adoptive child. Participants were more likely to approve of child placements with lesbian adoptive couples whose gender role characteristics emulated the traditional masculine/feminine dyad as compared to lesbian couples in which both partners displayed feminine characteristics. Statistically significant predictors of negative attitudes toward adoption by lesbian couples were religiosity and non-essentialist beliefs about homosexuality as well as endorsement of modern homonegative attitudes predicted negative attitudes toward adoption by gay male couples. Targeted education for social workers and adoption agency workers should be developed to ensure objective assessments of prospective same-sex adoptive couples regardless of their gender role characteristics.     

Biracial Americans' Experience with Identity,Gender Roles,and Anxiety

The current study aims to shed light on the experiences of a small but growing group, biracial Americans with one African American and one European American birth parent. Prior results suggest that it would be useful to study ethnic identity and its correlates among members of this group. Additionally, although research to date suggests different gender role norms for African Americans and European Americans, and that anxiety level differs across gender role categories, apparently no research so far has looked at these factors among biracial Americans. The measures used in the study were the Revised Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (R-MEIM), the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ), and the Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Scale (IDAS). Results from the Well-being scale of the IDAS show low levels for biracial participants with feminine/undifferentiated gender roles and high levels for those with masculine/androgynous roles. Additional findings, implications, and study limitations are further discussed.     

Recombinative Generalization of Tacts Through Matrix Training with Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Foss (Journal of Experimental Psychology, 76, 450–459, 1968a; Journal of Experimental Psychology, 77, 341–344, 1968b) compared overlap and non-overlap instruction to promote recombinative response generalization using a matrix training procedure. In the present study, we used a similar set of procedures to teach tacting of kitchen items and prepositions (i.e., relational autoclitics) to three females ages 13–20, diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. We taught some kitchen items/prepositions as tacts (e.g., “the strainer is to the right of the box”) according to a non-overlap instructional sequence. Subsequently, we taught more combinations in an overlap instructional sequence. Each training procedure was followed by probes of untrained relations. Two participants demonstrated recombinative generalization of untrained combinations following the first non-overlap phase, while the third participant demonstrated some response generalization of untrained relations after a few additional training sequences. All three participants demonstrated generalized tacting of object components while two participants showed generalized tacting of preposition components.     

Effects of Multiple Exemplar Training on the Emergence of Derived Relations in Preschool Children Learning a Second Language

We evaluated the facilitative effects of multiple exemplar training (MET) on the establishment of derived tact relations in typically developing children. A multiple-probe design across stimulus sets was implemented to introduce MET. Participants were first taught to conditionally relate dictated names in English to their corresponding objects (listener behavior; A-B relations), followed by tests for derived tacts (B-A relations). If participants failed these tests, MET was implemented whereby tact relations were explicitly taught with novel stimulus sets, followed by test probes with the original training set. MET continued with novel stimuli until participants met criterion for the emergence of derived tact relations or after exposure to three MET sets. Results indicated failed tests for tact relations following direct training in listener relations, and marked improvements in derived tact relations following MET across all participants.     

Ladies First? Not So Fast: Linguistic Sexism in Peer-Reviewed Research

The words we use reflect and influence our interpretation of the world. The role of gender within a language varies; biases based on social gender are referred to as linguistic sexism. Male firstness is the practice of persistently ordering masculine terms before feminine terms. Because academic writing is mandated to be free of bias, peer-reviewed research should not contain any form of linguistic sexism. To assess the presence of male firstness in academic writing, we examined 862 contemporary articles from 10 social science journals across three disciplines: sexuality, health, and psychology. To assess male firstness, we tallied common gendered pairs (e.g., “women and men”; “male and female”) and calculated percentages indicating how often men were presented before women. We found that male firstness bias was present in each of the 10 journals. For individual journals, the percentage of gendered phrases that presented masculine terms first ranged from 57.7% to 88.8%. Sexuality and health journals demonstrated less linguistic sexism than psychology; however, there were no consistent trends between journals within each discipline. We discuss the current presence of male firstness in academic journals and the issues this bias triggers. Recommendations for reducing linguistic sexism in peer-reviewed research are also discussed.     

Do Workplace Gender Transitions Make Gender Trouble?

This article examines what happens when an employee makes the transition from one recognized gender category to another and remains in the same job. Drawing on in‐depth interviews with transmen and transwomen in Texas and California, we illustrate how a new social gender identity is interactionally achieved in these open workplace transitions. While transgender people often are represented as purposefully adopting hyper‐feminine or masculine gender identities post‐transition, we find that our respondents strive to craft alternative femininities and masculinities. However, regardless of their personal gender ideologies, their men and women co‐workers often enlist their transitioning colleague into gender rituals designed to repatriate them into a rigid gender binary. This enlistment limits the political possibilities of making gender trouble in the workplace, as transgender people have little leeway for resistance if they wish to maintain job security and friendly workplace relationships.     

Comparing topography-based verbal behavior with stimulus selection-based verbal behavior

Michael (1985) distinguished between two types of verbal behavior: topography-based and stimulus selection-based verbal behavior. The current research was designed to empirically examine these two types of verbal behavior while addressing the frequently debated question, Which augmentative communication system should be used with the nonverbal developmentally disabled person? Four mentally retarded adults served as subjects. Each subject was taught to tact an object by either pointing to its corresponding symbol (selection-based verbal behavior), or making the corresponding sign (topography-based verbal behavior). They were then taught an intraverbal relation, and were tested for the emergence of stimulus equivalence relations. The results showed that signed responses were acquired more readily than pointing responses as measured by the acquisition of tacts and intraverbals, and the formation of equivalence classes. These results support Michael’s (1985) analysis, and have important implications for the design of language intervention programs for the developmentally disabled.

     

Lesbians’ Negative Affect Toward Sexual Minority People with Stereotypical Masculine and Feminine Characteristics

Abstract

We investigated lesbians’ negative affect toward gay and lesbian scenarios with feminine/negative characteristics. Seventy-one Italian lesbians responded to self-report questionnaires. Analyses tested that feminine gay man scenario (GF) would elicit negative affect more than the other three scenarios (feminine/masculine lesbian woman and masculine gay man) and that participants’ internalized sexual stigma would be a moderator of the relation between their self-perceived femininity and negative affect. When lesbians reported low self-perceived femininity, stigma levels did not affect the evaluation of the GF. Instead, when self-perceived femininity were higher, lesbians with high stigma reported more negative emotions than lesbians with low stigma.